The death in Bogotá, on May 29, of Alejandra Ortega 'Monocuco', a trans sex worker from Magangué who apparently had covid and who apparently did not receive medical attention when she reported that she was HIV-positive; The police harassment last weekend for six hours of Emma Hidalgo, another trans woman, when she was trying to enter the Medellín Metro.

These are two recent cases mentioned by organizations that defend the rights of trans people (people whose gender identity is different from their assigned sex) to demonstrate the sufferings and vulnerabilities that this community is experiencing in times of a coronavirus pandemic.

Violence, however, according to the same details given by these groups and individually by some trans people, is just the tip of the iceberg of a more dramatic situation, which is not new, goes through limitations to access the health system and has the complexity that not all the figures to get an idea are updated or unified.

The situation of trans people in a pandemic begins, as it has for many years, due to the violence and discrimination that many have to suffer. According to three trans groups that we consulted for this story, one of the critical moments in this period of confinement is evident in the measure of 'peak and gender' that, from April 13 to May 11, imposed in Bogotá the Mayor Claudia López.

To control the exit of people through the city, the measure fixed odd days for men to leave and pairs for women, and said that trans people could move according to their gender identity. But the decision was not well received among trans organizations for various reasons.

The Trans Action and Support Group Foundation (GAAT), one of the most visible in the city, said that the peak and gender opened the door to situations of police abuse, since, as the identity of many trans people goes out of a binary rule, left in the hands of the Police to outline if they could go out or not. Read more via La Sillavacia